Premium Grades
The geology of Washington state, even just within the Devil's Mountain Fault Zone of the western Cascades, produces a wide variety of jades of varying color, quality, and hardness. Among these many varieties are a few consistent types that are worthy of their own classifications as well as the qualification as a "Premium Grade."
Evergreen Jade™
The best of the best jade in Washington! This material is pure, classic green that contains both highly translucent and cat's eye chatoyant material. The material carves and polishes wonderfully, taking a brilliant polish with very little effort.
For more information and to browse our inventory, see the full Evergreen Jade™ page.
Blue Dream Jade®
A unique material among nephrite jades, Blue Dream Jade® is an incredibly hard, vibrant blue material with moderate translucense and a swirling-to-even pattern that takes a superb polish. In the best grades the swirls are chatoyant, creating an even, cirrus-cloud-like distribution of shimmering threads floating in the jade's vibrant reflected blue light.
For more information and to browse our inventory, see the full Blue Dream Jade® Page.
Dragon's Eye™
You've most likely heard of "Tiger's Eye." You may even have encountered its blue cousin, "Hawk's Eye." Now, here at Washington Jade, we've unearthed a green material worthy of the name "Dragon's Eye™." This material is composed of aligned bands of chatoyant actinolite/tremolite (the component minerals of nephrite) with varying orientation. The result is a green variety of Tiger's Eye that makes a beautiful lapidary material. Available in wholesale quantities. Send inquiries to sales@washingtonjade.com.
Antigorite Serpentine
Every high-grade nephrite deposit is associated with a serpentinite intrusive. True to this trend, Washington Jade has located and staked a large serpentine quarry nearby its largest nephrite deposit. Unlike other serpentine finds, however, our serpentine contains large quantities of gold and nickel in the form of awaruite and electrum in addition to the usual chrome. This material comes in a broad variety of grades, ranging from highly opaque and metalliferous to highly translucent bowenite serpentine.
For more information, see the full Serpentine page.
Blue Chromoflec Nephrite Jade
This is a unique blue-tinted nephrite jade characterized by bright "flecks" of glowing green color distributed through the jade matrix. The material shows a distinct “grain” and takes a waxy luster when professionally polished by an experienced nephrite artisan, but orange peel is a challenge for most.
Blue Ice Nephrite Jade
The nearly transparent nephrite with the sweetest blue light effects has been termed Blue Ice and is exceptionally rare. It is found as small portions and layers in the larger Green Sugar Nephrite boulders. As such, it carves similarly to the Green Sugar Nephrite, though it is usually accompanied by black chlinochlore, which creates varying amounts of challenging soft spots.
Green Sugar Nephrite Jade
Bull Trout Jade's federal mining claims have yielded classic sugar jade. It carves and polishes wonderfully and is nearly transparent in thin sections, revealing its sugar greens and ice blues as these sections thicken.
Vulcan Nephrite Jade
This green to honey green jade is notable for its dark yellow to red streaks of vulcanized material that run primarily along healed fractures. Iron and other minerals have leeched into the surrounding jade in most places, giving it large swaths of natural deep red staining that glow under transmitted light.